rone | your daily recap

Germany 1 - Argentina 1 (4-2 PKs): An absolutely dreadful first half, where the Argentinians started whining and whacking and diving pretty much from the start, and the Germans soon followed their lead in the diving department. Easily the most dives in any game this Cup. Things improved in the second half with Ayala's goal, where he managed to wrap his body around Klose to firmly head the ball in. Later, Klose vindicated himself with a solid strike. Overtime went back to being mostly dull. Ayala closed the circle by poorly taking his penalty kick. If Michael Ballack (whose performance was rather erratic) is Matt Damon, i'd say Maxi Rodríguez is Ben Affleck.

Italy 3 - Ukraine 0: A much better game than i expected (perhaps the soccer gods made it interesting because of the crap of the first game). Ukraine came very close to tying the game and then Italy knocked in their second goal, and quickly after that a third, both on defensive miscues in the box, both by Luca Toni (finally). Today just plain wasn't Ukraine's day; even near the end, Shevchenko was taken down in the box close to the referee, but no call. Italy faces Germany in a rematch of the `82 Cup final.